Joe Feddersen Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds

Black Ghost, 2015

Monoprint with spray paint, 30 x 22 in.

Geese Flying and Black Ghost have repeating elements that almost mirror each other.

Boat glyphs and triangles in Geese Flying highlight water and wind, across which travel the tree, the human and the animal. In Black Ghost, the wide line through the center rains down in red while ghostly images seem to hover in a fog above the red storm. The subtly segmented artworks evoke multiple worlds simultaneously; whether land and sea, an underworld and an overworld, or even the past and present. Fedderson explains that he draws inspiration for his artworks from the visual culture of the Plateau Indians, stating that his “interest lies in the zone where the signs tenuously dissolve into a modernist aesthetic while still maintaining direct ties to the Plateau designs.” Black Ghost reminds us that the earth’s past haunts the present, and that all land acts as a site of memorial.

Geese Flying Over and Black Ghost have repeating elements that almost mirror each other. Boat glyphs and triangles in Geese Flying Over highlight water and wind, across which travel the tree, the human and the animal. In Black Ghost, the wide line through the center rains down in red while ghostly images seem to hover in a fog above the red storm. The subtly segmented artworks evoke multiple worlds simultaneously; whether land and sea, an underworld and an overworld, or even the past and present. Feddersen explains that he draws inspiration for his artworks from the visual culture of the Plateau Indians, stating that his “interest lies in the zone where the signs tenuously dissolve into a modernist aesthetic while still maintaining direct ties to the Plateau designs.” Black Ghost reminds us that the earth’s past haunts the present, and that all land acts as a site of memorial.

Not Your Coyote Stories, comprising twenty-four individual monoprints marked with hand lettered words and phrases, resembles a group of protest posters. These are not always clear directives, however. The artwork evokes an atmosphere of protest, with calls-to-action like “Do Live Life For Your Planet” alongside other stubbornly obtuse directives: “Smear the Rouge Claw the Ground,” or “Do Not Hide the Coarse Horizon.” Against backgrounds in shades of blues and greens, language becomes landscape. Meanings accumulate in the deceptively flat technology of the grid. The words can be read across or down, juxtaposing diverse images and cultural references. Deforestation for the sake of human pleasure is evoked, for example, in the phrase “Jungle No More Just Polo Party.” Like shadows and light playing across the surface of water, the artwork evokes the mediated nature of mass culture, consumption, violence and communication, raising questions about how perception shapes the social and physical environment.